


Time After Time

by ThatOneMawile



Series: Looping Conduit (Infamous Time Loop AUs) [1]
Category: inFAMOUS (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Hello Dead Fandom, Time Loop AU, almost canon, cole's very bad day(s), good cole runs tho only, infamous 1 and 2 spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-07
Updated: 2018-08-07
Packaged: 2019-06-23 13:23:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15607212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatOneMawile/pseuds/ThatOneMawile
Summary: The first time it happens, Cole thinks he’s won. He thinks it’s over, and he still has his life. It’s a beautiful minute or two until he realizes what's going on, the screams on innocents pounding his head in a way he’s only heard twice, and never wanted to hear again. Empire burns around him, and he’s feels almost human. The crackling of electricity in his veins is a dull blur but present, and it utterly burns his insides enough to match his skin.Were the last two months real?... Cole's stuck in a time loop. It's no where near as fun as that sounds.





	Time After Time

**Author's Note:**

> So hi the 2 people who care about the first inFAMOUS games. This has been in the works since the start of November last year and I finished it the day of Sony's E3 this year but just delayed posting... I'm sorry? Kinda? My passion for it ran out half way through and writers block is hell but I really like how it turned out. Hope you guys enjoy it!
> 
> Also as usual un-betaed and may include NZ spellings/sayings that I subconsciously added...

The first time it happens, Cole thinks he’s won. He thinks it’s  _ over _ , and he still has his life. It’s a beautiful minute or two until he realizes what's going on, the screams on innocents pounding his head in a way he’s only heard twice, and never wanted to hear again. Empire  _ burns  _ around him, and he’s feels  _ almost  _ human. The crackling of electricity in his veins is a dull blur but present, and it utterly burns his insides enough to match his skin.

 

_ Were the last two months real? _

 

They were too  _ real _ not to have been - and he can still feel the electricity in his veins and around him, no matter how muted. He didn't know what had gone wrong - He was supposed to be dead. Cole had  _ felt _ himself dying, drained of the electricity even Zeke had worked out was the only thing keeping him alive. He was alive, and  _ activated _ , not drained which meant one of two things. He had either succeeded in activating the RFI, it acted like a Ray Sphere and destroyed everything and everyone around him or… 

 

He was back in Empire. Impossible, if he doesn’t remember in another life doing just that. Luminescent blue eyes flashed in his vision and he  _ just can’t take it _ . He meant to lash out at the terrain he knew was already destroyed, expelling all the energy that he had left over from the beast. But as only a few sparks fall from his hands and nothing he could do could fix it. 

 

Dragging himself up, and ignoring the pounding in his head and the way the ground sways in favor of climbing out of the crater (Where's Kessler? He  _ has  _ to be near but the draw of a electricity source is muted and impossible to pick out between his footsteps) and starting towards the parking building that occasionally haunts his sparse sleeping moments.  

 

* * *

 

The first time he dies after the RFI it's not the Beast that does it - It was actually Bertrand. Cole was already trying ignore the fact that he was covered in  _ whatever _ the monster used to slow him down (It wasn’t conductive - This time he tested it) and he hasn't been paying enough attention to the  _ giant 3-story monster _ he was fighting, meaning he hadn’t managed to duck out of the way of Bertrand’s leg before it came down. The crunch of bones scream as everything cuts to black suddenly, and the last thing he notices is the pull of nearby sources cutting out, long after his body has already been destroyed.

 

Waking up in Empire isn’t as much of a shock as it should of been - nor is seeing the world burn for the 5th time.

 

Humanity is a fickle thing...

 

* * *

 

  
The people change each time, he learns. But they are always there. Everyone else’s plans are fluid, changing to fit the roles of the universe while he treads the same route he’s done 36 times before. Not every time he reaches New Maire - Sometimes he’s crushed under Alden’s monsters, twisted under Sasha's throne or drained in the sea - but everything usually follows the same path. The details change and swap in a blurry nonsense that he’s lost track of after too many retries.   
  


Even the two guards who wander the same bridge by the graveyard return, constantly fickle in their goals and whether they drop the never changing blast shard drop information. It seems that their goal in life is to piss him off - and it works.

 

* * *

 

Zeke’s betrayal is a constant, but it hurts less each time. He doesn’t understand why it's the case when Trish is still a raw wound being ripped open each time she falls, but the thought of Zeke doesn’t make the sky go grey anymore. Even his Eternal struggle against Kessler changes, anger and hatred changing on both sides to mutual respect - Kessler was the one who  _ escaped _ the loop, but they both know that it’s because he was lucky enough to travel beyond their birth. If he hadn’t he would be doing the  _ exact _ same thing as Cole is now, restart after restart with no conceivable goal in mind. No matter what he does, how far he goes, he can't escape it. The RFI sends him straight back to the start, and if he had half a mind he wouldn't activate it. But he  _ can’t not activate it, _ and every time he’s drained entirely there's a blish moment of  _ feeling _ before it all goes black again. His life dissolved into numbers of resets, numbness and the ever persistent crackle of electricity. Not one person he spends time with notices… and perhaps that is for the best.

 

_ That’s a lie _ \- One person notices. One person  _ remembers _ as strongly as he does, so when he finds himself giving up mid-battle against Kessler on his 116th restart, falling to his knees and just giving up their eyes meet, for a moment of true understanding.

 

_ End it. _

 

_ It’s never the end - this isn't a way out. _

 

_ I don't care. I’m  _ **_done_ ** _. _

 

Kessler only nods in reply before plunging the sparking blade into Cole’s chest, everything goes blissfully dark and he almost thinks it's over. He had never died by Kessler’s hand before, Kessler had never allowed it. They both knew that no matter what happened the loop would start again and neither could fix it. But each time Cole died, it was the only peace he could have. He should of felt nothing… But this time? This time was  _ different. _

 

Something within him still sparks as strong as ever, no  _ stronger _ and burns him alive from the inside out, water pounding against his body and every moment agony. He had expected to open his eyes for the 117th time in a stupid crater at the center of his city feeling relatively human. Not with enough electricity to light a city still thumping through every nerve in his body, just screaming to level a city block with abilities he  _ knows _ he has even though he just woke up in his usual spot where he should be as weak as a kitten.

 

It should scare him more.

 

But Cole knows he stopped feeling fear a long time ago.

 

* * *

 

It takes him far too long to suppress the electricity into something a bit more manageable and  _ human -  _ he hasn't felt this powerful in what seems like forever, similar to the last time he killed the Beast and he knows he could get drunk off the feeling. He has to rein it in however because of the risk of both Kessler and Moya finding out. If either were to know that he was much, much more powerful than he should be they would be forced to take desperate measures to stop him before things got too fast - and they were definitely capable of it if they had a clue. 

 

Pale faces of desperation crowd a bridge,  _ the bridge _ and Cole knows he could help them this time - but he  _ can’t _ , not without destroying his hard work and the first try he’s found that could help him get out of the loop…

 

It’s strange that he never forgets their faces, pale splotched with blood as the deafening gunfire starts - he’s forgetting all the other details, but eyes shot with pain never slip further than the nights of peace on rooftops, Zeke asleep and speckled with broken glass as Kuo snoozes on a cardboard mattress, sky red and dark as the day ended. He  _ missed _ it, the happy nights when he didn't have to worry about anything but defeating the Beast.

 

No rest for the dead however, and Cole has a lot of experience being dead.

 

* * *

 

For the first time, Kessler is shocked. Cole can feel it, the way his electricity pauses when it finds his own invisible currents in the air. He hid it behind his bravo of course, but neither needed expressions to understand that this time Kessler didn't have all the cards - he had far too few to fight his own abomination.

 

He wanted more however, and Cole wasn't in a sharing mode. Hadn't been for a hundred or so resets. 

 

However the old man was always too perceptive for his own good, but untalented with words at his core, no matter how many years of training he hid it behind. Luckily for the both of them this didn't require an essay - nor an explanation. The battle would speak for itself.

 

“We were never strong enough”

 

“No.  _ You  _ never were.”

 

This time when his own blade enters Kessler's chest, he knows it's his only opportunity. The final chance to  _ make this right. _

 

* * *

 

The Beast looms over as always, with the added bonus of what feels like a thousand deaths under his hands pushing down on Cole. Not that it’d make a difference, but Cole knows if he doesn't get this over and done with soon he’ll collapse under the weight of it all. Empire citizens sprint away from him, from the beast, causing a wall of sound and Cole knows that John’s driven him into a corner - Cole can’t show his full power at this rate less John prepares for it but taking a hit into the Ocean would kill him,  and he has no idea how many times he’d have to do it all again if he wants another chance like this. 

 

He really doesn't have an option. Kessler’s probably just  _ rolling  _ with laughter in his grave (Old bastard). Kuo and Zeke are already safely on the boat… and Cole knows the Beast isn't as fast as the boat. So, he turns and activates his electric whip and swings towards the boat, praying that he’s not just stabbed himself in the back.

 

The world rushes around him, and there’s hands dragging him up where his broken body fails him.

 

Zeke’s panicked tones accompany his sleep, and Cole finally thinks he can forgive him.

 

* * *

 

He’ll never forget the feeling of hopelessness that the RFI gives him as it activates in his hands, stripping every inch of electricity from his body in its greed. 

 

He’ll never forget Zeke’s panic as it goes off, ripping his very fiber apart.

 

He’ll never forget how  _ her  _ face is the last he sees, and how she’s  _ proud  _ of him.

 

* * *

 

A whole new world wakes up in the ashes of the second explosion…

**Author's Note:**

> So what did you guys think? I know its a dead fandom but god I love it and i really appreciate any kudos or comments you guys might have. I don't think im done with inFAMOUS either...
> 
> And as usual you can find me on [tumblr](https://not-a-mimic.tumblr.com) if you guys want to say hi! It's mainly Xenoblade these days however... that might be a hint about what my next fic will be ;)


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